


I just wanted to see you

by breathe_out



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: e025 One Year Later, Fluff, M/M, my headcanon is that Cecil has kaleidoscopic eyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28777269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breathe_out/pseuds/breathe_out
Summary: One Year Later - Carlos invites Cecil to the Arby's parking lot. Cecil is relieved; Carlos is affectionate.i.e. my version of how such a tender scene played out.
Relationships: Carlos/Cecil Palmer
Comments: 1
Kudos: 43





	I just wanted to see you

The night was ablaze with hundreds of stars. They were small specks of light against the great black canvas of the sky. A cool breeze curled through the air, but it felt pleasant after the long, hot day. Carlos closed his eyes and leaned back on the trunk of his car. Although he had sustained only minor injuries, many of them still throbbed unpleasantly. He resisted the urge to scratch at the smiley-face adhesive bandage taped over his left eyebrow.

Then, the quiet was interrupted by the sound of another vehicle. Tires noisily rolled over the gravel-filled parking lot as it arrived. When the engine cut off, only the soft, incessant sound of the Arby’s neon signage filled the silence. Carlos did not need to reopen his eyelids to see who it was, but he did so anyway. He wanted to see him. He pushed himself off the trunk and waited, his heartbeat quickening. Cecil had emerged from his car and frozen, openly staring across the vacant lot at Carlos. 

Cecil appeared more out of sorts than usual. His button-up collared shirt, as well as the vest over it, were partially rumpled and untucked from his pants. The violet bowtie he preferred to wear was slightly clockwise. His light-blonde hair stuck out at odd angles, as if Cecil had run his fingers through the strands several times in anxiety. Cecil’s face was blotchy and flushed from crying. His normally bright, violet eyes had changed to a soft gray. 

Carlos doubted that he looked any better. His flannel had a large tear in the hem, revealing his undershirt, and his jeans were stained with dried mud. His lab coat had been lost in the waylay and shredded beyond repair. The haphazard assortment of band aids and gauze that were hastily taped over his skin made him look like a collage. 

Time seemed to slow down, as it usually did when they were together. They were only mere yards apart, but neither of them had rushed to close the distance. Carlos was caught up in the crashing waves of new emotions roiling in his chest. 

Carlos licked his dry lips, trying to think of something comforting to say. “Cecil-.” 

But Cecil was already rushing into his arms to push himself flush against Carlos. Carlos could feel Cecil’s heartbeat drumming in his rib cage. His fingers dug into Carlos’s clothes – not painfully so, but hard enough to ground himself in the present; to reassure him that Carlos was there and truly alive. Cecil tucked his face away in the shoulder of Carlos’s jacket, eyes squeezed shut. 

Carlos – momentarily stunned by such an overwhelming display of affection – stood rooted to the ground with his arms hovering awkwardly at his sides. His addled, exhausted brain finally gained a singular moment of clarity. That is when he felt it; something that can only possibly be described as pure, innocent love. Like a flower blossoms anew in the Spring; or how the sunlight paints the dawn as it rises over the horizon. 

Carlos trembled as he pulled Cecil closer to his chest. He wrapped his arms around Cecil and felt him sigh in response. Hot tears suddenly threatened to fall down Carlos’s cheeks. They clung to his eyelashes as he fought down the abrupt rise of emotion welling inside him. He tried to blink them away. 

“Cecil.” he whispered, so softly that it was almost lost in the wind. 

The shorter man pulled away abruptly, a bright red blush coloring his pale cheeks. “S-Sorry, dear Carlos.” He rubbed the back of his neck shyly and stepped away exactly two paces. “I’m just so…relieved.” 

That one word: relief. It slipped from Cecil’s lips with the weight of a thousand unsaid feelings. 

Carlos smiled sweetly. He had been so, so blind. The moments that they could have shared together over the entirety of the last year may be lost to time forever. But – he could begin to mend that now.

“What is it?” Cecil continued. He was fidgeting nervously, clutching his hands together and shifting foot-to-foot restlessly. “Wha– what danger are we in? What mystery needs to be explored?”

Carlos felt his heart begin to melt. After a year of unrequited affection and dismissals, Cecil was still more than content to simply stand by Carlos’s side – not as a lover, but as a friend. Although the broadcaster had just broken down over the radio and believed him to be lost, he wanted nothing more than to help Carlos in any way that he could.

Carlos shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “After everything that happened…I just wanted to see you.”

“Oh?” Cecil’s irises were slowly coloring again as his feelings changed. Carlos found himself temporarily speechless. He watched the colors slowly bleed together like a water painting. 

Carlos looked at the setting sun instead. The sky seemed to be reawakening as the day receded and the night came alive with a patchwork of distant stars. 

“I used to think it was setting at the wrong time,” he said, “but then I realized that time doesn’t work in Night Vale, and that none of the clocks are real. Sometimes things seem so strange, or malevolent, and then you find that, underneath, it was something else altogether. Something pure, and innocent.”

A pause settled between them. The air was filled with anticipation and a singular, silent question of hope.

Cecil’s eyes softened; his irises had settled on a pale lavender.

“I know what you mean.” he whispered. 

At last, Carlos met Cecil’s wandering gaze again, and the understanding that passed between them made his heart soar. Their lives finally seemed to line together in this singular, vulnerable moment. He lifted himself back onto the trunk of his car with ease and gestured to Cecil to come join him. Cecil only allowed himself to hesitate for a second, before he too slipped onto the vehicle. 

They had never been so physically close before, and the emotions growing between them felt palpable in the quiet night. He looked up toward the lights that glowed above the Arby’s – something that he had tried to understand so long ago, but simply continued to exist anyway. The lights encompassed everything that had led to this moment between them. Carlos’s had once believed that the entirety of Night Vale was foreign and strange, but now – it was his home. Cecil was a part of that home. 

He laid his hand gently upon Cecil’s left knee. It represented a simple, physical connection to reassure one another that they were truly there, locked in this soon-to-be precious memory. Cecil stiffened, only for a short time, before finally settling his cheek against Carlos’s shoulder. 

The next few moments were too fragile for words.


End file.
